Chris Kelly & Kerry Brown 
The Lost Tavern 
A Pirate’s Odyssey

When young Maria Hallett meets the worldly Sam Bellamy and they fall in love, the stage is set for heartbreak, a tragic betrayal, the wreck of a fabulous pirate ship, and a fiery conclusion. Set in colonial America and ranging from Boston to Cape Cod to the Caribbean, The Lost Tavern, a historical fiction, encompasses in 250 pages the worlds of two lovers, pirate crews, and an evolving New England culture of merchants, seamen, and already vanishing Indian tribes. All of these worlds come together in one way or another at Samuel Smith’s island tavern, which was rediscovered and excavated in the 1970’s. During the excavation a shattered skull was discovered in the basement, a detail that figures prominently at the end of the novel.
The tale is based on the legendary escapades of the notorious pirate, Sam Bellamy, and his relationship to his young lover, but it employs a large canvas. While taking liberties with the legend, the novel is true to the historical context, to pirate lore, and to the dangers they face both on the seas and on the land.

About the author

Nine years in the making, this book has been a team effort. Kerry Brown has written the text, and Chris Kelly has been a creative inspiration and an able researcher. Mr. Brown, a high school English teacher and guidance counselor, has a doctorate in postmodern American literature from the University of Delaware and has written and edited several historical texts in the past. Mr. Kelly, a Physics teacher, has published two books and been a serious student of Cape Cod history for many years. This book represents their first foray into the realm of historical fiction. They reside on Cape Cod with their families, and both walked the same beaches and sailed the same waters Sam Bellamy and Maria Hallett did almost three hundred years ago.







My colleague in this project, Chris Kelly, has provided essential research and has been a publisher of several l